Back in 1984 in response to a general invitation
to the congregation of the General Church of the New Jerusalem by its Executive
Bishop Louis B. King for ideas regarding the reorganization of the General
Church, I submitted some ideas I had developed regarding organization of
businesses that I thought could apply just as well to the affairs of the
church. My outline listed seven phases in the performance of a use: 1)
Defining the purpose, 2) Learning the technology, 3) Acquiring the wherewithal
(e. g., people, skills, equipment, fund.), 4) Performing the function,
5) Communication mutually with customers (e. g., worshipers), 6) Re-examining
the use (e. g., R&D), and 7) Relating the use and its origin to the greater uses in
society (and heaven). [See
1985 report on Church Organization]

When Bishop King retired, Bishop Buss formed a Governance
Committee to continue the concern for a more appropriate organization of
the General Church. During those years, I came to feel that my approach,
though reasonable, was insufficient. I asked myself, "The church is the
Lord's; how does He organize it?" The answer, of course, is, "In the Human
Form". This, I now believe, is where we should start, regardless of its
apparent difficulty.

The doctrine of correspondence taught in the writings
of Swedenborg tells a lot about the relationship of the natural
world to the spiritual world and the Divine Being. The human form, being
divine in essence, is reflected throughout creation on all levels and in
the greatest and least of its parts. We are told that the ancient churches
saw this clearly, and developed the science of correspondences as a means
of communication with heaven (e. g., seeCorrespondences of Egypt,
by
Carl Th. Odhner). This fueled a study of nature, and eventually natural
science stole the stage from the science of correspondences as people drifted
away from interest in spiritual things.

We now know that there was such a science, and that
it decayed through the millennia. We have also seen natural science grow
gigantic. Swedenborg, who was one of the leaders of 18th century
science did not know about oxygen or hydrogen, much less what a gene is.
And we, though we have the doctrine, do not know their correspondences.
Let's find out!

And if we can manage to come close to an answer,
what then? With a knowledge of the correspondence of a few atoms, and what
we know from Swedenborg about some of the molecules, such as water, we
would be able to infer the significance of other atoms and molecules until
we may even be able to decipher the genes. Wow! I'm sure we will also gain
insights concerning how uses function, and so, also, about the order and
form of society, including the proper organization of the church.

We are warned that spiritual truth cannot be derived
from natural truth. We should heed this warning. What we should
try to do is see in the scheme of the human body, together with the light
of revealed doctrine, divine, spiritual, and social order; and by knowledge
of that order, see God, heaven, and society more clearly. We should be
able to understand all things more clearly.

Doctrine or Science

We hold that the doctrine of correspondence as taught
by Swedenborg has authority of revelation. This will not apply to our efforts
to develop the science of correspondence. The life of the scientific method
is a willingness, or rather, a determination to put truth above opinion.
When we propose that a certain body part or function may represent a certain
mental part or function, it must be demonstrated by doctrine and experience,
and the demonstration itself must be open to the scrutinyof colleagues.
We therefore call upon physiologists, chemists, physicists, sociologists,
psychologists, theologians, etc. to participate. The correspondence of
the body is with everything in creation, and can use every knowledgeable
person to contribute.

When the people of the ancient church developed the
science of correspondences, they had open communication with the angels
in the spiritual world. The angels provided the meaning to symbols of nature,
but the people of the church provided the symbols, or the scientifics which
represented those spiritual things.

As a church, we do not yet appear to generally have
open communication with heaven. However, we do have the heavenly doctrines
that can provide the meaning to all things in creation. The Lord said,
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into
all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatsoever
He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." (John 16:12,
13). To me this implies that the Lord will enlighten our intuition so see
spiritual and divine things in the Word and nature if we ask Him in humility.

Where do we start?

For a field of knowledge to be worthy of the name
science
it
must submit to a significant degree of discipline. There must be
agreement on definition of terms and exercise of logic. For example, I
propose use of a specific dictionary for medical terms, such as Merriam
Webster Medical Dictionary (on-line at http://www.intelihealth.com
) unless otherwise specified or agreed to. The meaning of a correspondence
relationship between two concepts should be explicit. For example, symbolic
relationships involving representation, signification, implication,
denotation, and even the word meaning ought to be used in consistent
ways within the field.

Another quality that needs to characterize a field
of science is focus.
Generally the learning process in science follows
the pattern of progressing through seven phases of investigation. 1) A
theory is posed, usually in the form of a question (which may imply a belief).
2) A search is made to determine what is already known about the subject.
3) A process (or experiment) is outlined to investigate reality to prove
the theory true or false, and the means of executing the plan are acquired.
4) The process is performed and conclusions drawn. 5) The results of the
process are communicated to colleagues (published) for evaluation and confirmation
of the conclusions 6) Implications of the conclusions are drawn. 7) The
value of the findings are released for use of the general public. This
kind of focus can be applied to the study of correspondences. We don't
want too many questions. What we want is answers. But, of course, we must
start with questions.

Some examples of questions.

1)What is the correspondence of Oxygen? Swedenborg
didn't know there was such a thing! Yet it is the major element in the
breath of life. 2) And what about Hydrogen? It is the first element,
and must have quite an important signification. 3) This leads us to the
electron,
which plays a major role in defining chemical composition of molecules.
4) To understand that role, more knowledge about the significance of integers
will
be needed. Hold on! Don't forget
focus, and that requires a lot
of discipline.